Only One
by Rayamon
Summary: A dark fic. Ken sits alone in a cave with a storm raging around him and just wonders...Why is he who he is?


Author's note: I originally wrote this story as part of my A-level English coursework...we could do a story as part of it, so I decided to do a fanfic ^_~. Because of that, there're no names mentioned in here (although we all know who the loud-mouthed jock and the snivelling worm are), and you can pretty much guess that this fic is all about Ken. And we all know what the shadows are...

This entire fic was inspired by Ken's theme song, 'Only One'. It's a really freaky and sinister song. The ending really creeps me out O_o;; I highly suggest listening to it while reading this. I did all the way through writing it. But when I told my English teacher it was inspired by a song, she told me to try and get her a copy, but I seriously doubt she knew what she let herself in for ^^ I'm gonna get some funny looks when she listens to it!

One more thing: For part of my commentary on the writing of this, I need to have shown it to an audience. *looks at all the people reading this and smiles sweetly* I don't beg for reviews, but just this once, could you guys let me know what you think of this? I'd greatly appreciate it!

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Only One

By Rayamon

He sat with his back to the rock and gazed out upon the bleak landscape before him.

The rain had formed an impenetrable curtain of grey, limiting vision to a few feet. The heavy sky was pregnant with cloud, and the mist crawled like a wounded beast across the empty forest. In his small cave, created by an overhang of rock, he stared impassively at the barren view.

__

That's what I like about you...your kindness. You're gentle. You treat others as if they're all your friends.

Funny how people change. How he could go from the light into the darkness. How he could drive people away just by caring for them.

Nobody cared for him anymore and, in return, he cared for nobody. Whoever he loved left him, either through death or by choice. That explained his loneliness, his permanently haunted look, the feeling of despair he seemed to emanate... 

He looked down at himself.

Grey clothes. Fitting, in such a colourless landscape.

He reverted his gaze back onto the monotone world. His blue/violet eyes and smooth hair had been transformed by the gloom into a dark raven black. Sitting motionless in his alcove, he appeared one with the rock, a silent sentinel trapped in eternal vigilance.

Why? That had been the focus of his life. Why? So many questions he sought the answer for, let he still couldn't find them. All his life he had struggled for recognition, for respect...

For people to be in awe of him.

Now what did it matter? Everything he had fought so hard for had gone. They had been living in fear, in awe, at his might, his genius. He could have finished them easily...

But he didn't. And now, he was no better than they were.

All his life he was at the bottom. The youngest of two. He had always thought that he had been an accident, a mistake...

For how could he compare to his elder brother?

He had been perfect in every way. A genius, a sportsman, and a gentleman.

But he had known the truth.

The times his brother had beaten him for doing trivial things. Getting an answer wrong on the questions he had been set. For touching his stuff without permission.

He never told his parents, of course. He always said that he had fallen or walked into doors. Why would they believe him? After all, his brother was prefect and could do no wrong in their eyes. And in the eyes of the world.

__

Sometimes I wish he was dead!

Be careful what you wish for, for one day it could come true.

His young mind blamed himself, and now, 8 years later, it was gospel truth.

__

The expectations of your parents, their dreams for your brother...now they are your burden.

So that was what he did. He fought, he studied, he pushed himself to the limits, he isolated himself. He gained the respect and admiration his brother had basked in.

And, in his world, he was Master.

No one dared to cross him. They feared his lashing; they were literally grovelling at his feet.

But then his arrogance, combined with _them_, bought his downfall.

__

Don't turn away...we're your friends.

Friends. There was no such thing. People only wanted you when it suited them. Then when times turned hard, they scattered like petals in the wind.

Sure, they called themselves his friends. He tolerated them, to an extent.

But they didn't know the real him.

Like those creatures who called themselves his best friends. A snivelling worm and a loud-mouthed jock. What would they know? Did they know who he truly was? What did they care that he was here all alone? Nothing, because that was who he was in the end...nothing.

The drumming of the rain grew more insistent. The tree boughs groaned and swayed under the bombardment, as if dancing to an ancient tribal song. The grass was battered flat by the banshee wind, screaming curses and prophecies of certain doom. The sky, choked by the hurrying cloud, steadily lost its light and slipped into a premature evening. The darkness began to ooze over the land like blood, drowning the life that was left.

And up on his ledge, he watched it happen. He lent into the wind, feeling it caress his skin like a lover, ruffling his hair and soothing away his inner pain. Maybe the darkness was the end of everything, but it was also the numbness of oblivion and unfeeling. A place with no pain and suffering.

He opened his eyes as his name echoed through the gloom. He crawled forward, putting his head into the hammering rain, forcing the bottomless depths of his eyes to pierce the curtain. Then he saw them; their murky outlines being merged into a single creature, a monstrosity. His name again. They were searching for him, calling him out, trying to return him to them...

He slunk back to his refuge and shook the glittering liquid from his hair. They wouldn't find him. He didn't want to be found. They could wander until the earth cracked and the sky fell, but he wouldn't go back, oh no.

A peal of thunder shook him to his bones, and caused dust from the rock above him to shift and float down. Lightning split the sky, causing the clouds to bleed from their rifts as the rain pounded even harder, as if striving to break through the rock to reach him.

Yes, let them search. They wouldn't find him.

The shadows began to gather at his feet, coalesced into a lake of darkness where he could drown himself. They swirled round him like carrion birds, licking at his legs like a storm tide.

Let them be hit by lightning. Let them drown in the rain. They wouldn't find him.

The shadows chilled the air as they came oozing from the very rock itself. They crept forward, obliterating the light until he was alone like a beacon. Yet still they pressed forward.

They won't take me. They'll never have me back.

The thunder rolled, roaring like the behemoths of legend. The wind responded with the bellowing of the leviathans, as they suffocated the world with their eternal battles. The lighting shrieked down as the thunderbirds of Native American myth entered into the wars of the tempest. They howled and screeched in the madness of the storm, the world cracking beneath them as the rain became the blood, saturating the battlefield of the earth.

Let them search. Let them drown. I don't care. They'll never find me.

The shadows clawed up his throat, having wrapped themselves around his body like a funeral shroud. They choked his hope, his courage, his faith, his kindness...they smothered them all like a thick blanket to a flame. Suffocating them and snuffing out his light...

No, they'll never find me...

But why? Once again, his only question. Why was he like this? Why was he all alone again? Why was he here in this cave? Why was the storm raging like his emotions? Why did they search for him? Why did the darkness want him? Why was his life a lie? Why had he been cursed with this life? Why was he doomed to suffer and burn in the harsh light of others? And why...just why...was he who he was?

He drew his knees to his chest and hugged them, and he whispered in a voice cracked with loneliness, pain and despair.

"Because...I'm only one."

The lighting crashed outside, illuminating his world. The shadows absorbed the light, blocked out its piercing scrutiny and shielding him from its judgement. In the glare his face glowed as pale as death, and his blue/violet eyes that once shone with determination and mistrust were the steel black of his deepest despair, as crystal tears slid down his china cheeks, disappearing into the oblivion like a beacon against the rampaging tide of life.

Like the Sakura blossom...flowering for three days and filling the world with colour, before withering like hope and being trampled underfoot by the harshness of life.

He sighed and lowered his tear-stained face onto his knees, huddling as small as possible, surrendering himself to the darkness.

The shadows charged, like wolves to their prey, gleefully tearing and swirling, choking and suffocating, smothering and drowning...

The lightning flashed again, but now the cave was solid darkness.

He sank into his oblivion like a drowned man into the ocean. He drifted down, feeling his pain escape from his chest, like air from straining lungs. A smile tugged his lips as he lost himself into his own personal darkness, free from his pain, free from the world that hunted him down and called him its own, free from broken promises and unfulfilled expectations...

The darkness excepted him into its embrace; the numbing enfolds of its eternal black.

And what little hope and light he had...was extinguished.

Outside, the shadows overflowed and seeped into the storm beyond.


End file.
